


The Belly of the Beast

by Veilrony



Category: Armello (Video Game), Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 18:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16124528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veilrony/pseuds/Veilrony
Summary: Two travellers seek shelter in a dungeon, where they're greeted by something they thought was never even real.





	The Belly of the Beast

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: I haven't read all the armello lore, so this is mostly stuff of my own imagining.

The air was cold enough to finally get to even Reiner’s skin. The winter this year had been tough, and being at the peak of a mountain was enough to get to him. His armour was frozen solid, and he could feel the frost creeping up his wet nose.

The nighttime wasn’t helping either, and he could tell that Bertolt wanted a place to rest too. The issue was that there weren’t any stone circles near by, let alone a settlement.

“It’s getting bad,” he said after a moment. His staff was encrusted in ice, the stone hanging off of it completely frosted over. 

It was true though. The blizzard was almost enough to make them find their way back down the mountain, but at this point they were too far up to make it down. The best they could do was look for a cave or something.

The snowy blanket was enough to hide anything easily visible, so Reiner leaned into the bear’s fur and kept moving. 

The wind howled louder than even Clan Grounds at night, and for a moment the thought that they’d die in this storm flashed through Reiner’s mind. He huffed, cold air filling his mouth faster than he’d expelled it. 

In the distance, he saw a crag spike through the wintery storm. It came to show itself as an ancient stone building. He looked down and his paws felt oddly warm. There was a violet glow to the place. A dungeon…

“This is where you wanted to go, right?” he asked, but the words were blown away from Bertolt’s ears.

“Here!” he shouted, almost a roar. “Let’s find shelter, quick.”

And so they ran through the snow, kicking up clouds of it until they found themself at the entrance. There was an overhang that stopped the snow from covering it, and Reiner became more and more aware of the place’s purple glitter.

“Let’s go inside,” Bertolt shouted. He shoved open the stone door, the grinding of stone on stone making Reiner wince.

Reiner didn’t object, and followed the bear inside. He slid the door shut, and wiped the stone of his staff from the frost. He whispered a few words and the stone came alight.

“Sit,” Bertolt said. His voice was more reasonable, now that the sounds of the storm were muted by the stone walls.

“You wanted to be here, right?” he asked again.

He looked around, holding his stone up to the ceilings. He was completely silent, not even breathing, before he sat beside Reiner. “Yes.”

Reiner followed suit, taking a deep breath and gripping inside his bag for a towel. “I’m glad we found it.” He started wiping the ice from his armour, before he’d get frostbite wherever it touched. It was oddly warmer here. It smelled almost sulphurous.

“Likewise.” Reiner noticed that his ears were pricked and his eyes wide. He was even less wordless than usual.

He decided to slide his armour to let it warm up, as well. He shook the snow out of his fur with a growl. “Are you okay?” he finally asked, as he reached into the bag for his canteen. He opened it and expected to get a drink, but the opening had frozen over. He put it to his snout and hoped his teeth could break a hole, but it was too thick.

“It feels odd,” he said finally. “Foreboding.”

“Well that’s a dungeon for you,” he said after a second. “Dark, scary, not a light in the place besides your torch -- well, staff for you I guess.”

“It’s different this time.” 

Reiner sniffled. “How many dungeons have you explored?” he asked.

“This is my second…” Still, he had that alertness to him.  _ That _ was the most unsettling part about this.

“Well, every one of these is different, but they’re basically the same.” Admittedly, this one had a scent about it that made Reiner wrinkle his nose. This must have been a tomb of some sort. Death was the closest word to describe the smell.

“You smell it, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Reiner said slowly. Was this something the sisters had taught him about?

He cursed under his breath. “Keep your sword ready,” was the last thing he said before he fell silent.

Something rustled, and the staff’s pulsating blue light grew brighter. Reiner got up, paw on his sword’s sheath as Bertolt had instructed.

The rustling stopped, and Bertolt got up too, black fur spiked like a rosebush. “We need to find that spirit stone and get out of here, okay?”

Reiner nodded, padding towards a dimly illuminated doorway. Bertolt followed close behind, one paw ready to cast a spell if need be.

The tension started to get to him more and more, the further they went. The smell grew stronger until Reiner felt that he’d gag if he took another breath. He dug his snout into his chest fur for a second to take a few deep, filtered breaths, then continued.

The rustling continued, and he froze. A spider scuttled in front of him, and Reiner was ready to draw his sword and cut it in half out of fright.

The dungeon fell into a deep tunnel. Downward, downward, downward… His hackles were raised and he could feel the tension in his lips, ready to snarl.

Then, the tunnels widened until they were in a high-ceilinged cavern. The violet glimmer had become enough that Bertolt’s staff was a candle in comparison. He lowered it, and the glow faded.

Reiner’s breath was held as Bertolt stopped. He traced a paw along the walls, claws clicking against the textured surface.

“This place was so sacred…” he whispered.

Then, the stench grew. The rustling started again, and this time there were no spiders. The glimmer died out and the pair was left in sudden darkness. The wind howled again, but by now they were so far underground the blizzard was a dim memory.

Then, the wind screamed and dust kicked up from the floor. The room flashed violet again, then died yet again. Reiner drew his sword as the dust swirled, then started to glow. A pair of eyes formed, then a raven’s beak, and finally the billowing pair of those wings of death.

It grew to its full potential, opened its beak, and its shrill cry sent ice into Reiner’s heart.

He’d only heard of a creature like this in cub’s tales, something used to make him and his brothers obedient out of fear. But here it was in front of him, reeking of a fate worse than death.

The Bane swooped, and the wolf realized this could very well be his last moment.


End file.
